Bank robbery suspect shot by police

A portion of a cornfield is marked by police tape Tuesday after a Montgomery County police officer shot at and wounded a suspected bank robber who was cornered in the field. The man tried to ram the officer with his car, police said.

A man suspected of robbing two banks was in critical condition Tuesday after being shot by a police officer in a Damascus cornfield.

Capt. Paul Starks, Montgomery County Police spokesman, said police believe the man robbed the PNC bank at 13074 Middlebrook Road in Germantown at 9:18 a.m., then drove to Damascus and robbed the PNC bank at 26203 Ridge Road about 10:30 a.m.

Police had not released the man's name by 5 p.m. Tuesday.

The robber did not display a weapon at the Germantown bank, Starks said. Police do not know if he showed a weapon in Damascus.

After police put out a description of the man and his car, a red Toyota Corolla, at least one citizen followed the car and notified police, helping them find the suspect, Starks said.

Officers tried bumping the man's vehicle with their cruisers to spin him out, Starks said.

These attempts caused damage to the rear bumper of the Toyota, but did not end the chase.

Officers followed the man into a cornfield about 600 feet from Bowman Acres Lane, a residential cul-de-sac in Damascus, where he turned around and tried to drive back to the street.

Dust from a gravel road through the field made visibility difficult, Starks said.

When one police officer got out of his car to set up a perimeter, the man tried to ram the officer with his car, Starks said. The officer fired multiple shots at him.

The red Corolla which police say was not stolen, came to rest in a stand of pine trees in the back yard of 25811 Bowman Acres Lane because the driver was incapacitated, Starks said.

The officer who shot the man is an 11-year county police veteran stationed at District 5 in Germantown, Starks said.

The suspected robber, an African American in his early 20s, was given CPR before he was flown by helicopter to a shock trauma hospital in Baltimore, Starks said.

Starks confirmed the man was gravely injured, and he had to be revived before transport, but offered no other details.

Police are not saying if money was recovered from the man's car.

Neighbors watched the police activity from their porches, but none would comment on what they saw.

At the two robbed banks, employees could be seen through windows walking around inside the respective branches chatting with each other. The two locations closed for the day after the robberies.

Fred Solomon, a spokesman for PNC Bank, said the two branches will reopen Wednesday. He said PNC does not comment on security issues. He would not comment on how much money was stolen from each branch.